Harry Potter: What if?
by LtTora
Summary: What if Harry had been raised by someone else? How would he be different? How would certain events play out? What might he have done differently at certain points of the books. My attempt in writing this is to answer these questions.
1. Chapter 1

_Preface: We all know why Harry Potter was sent to live with his rotten Aunt and his delusional Uncle, and while I agree that the reasoning was valid given the circumstances I have never the less wondered: What if Harry had been raised by someone else? How would he be different? How would certain events playout? What might he have done differently at certain points of the books. This short story of which this is only chapter one will be my attempt to answer those very questions to the best of my own ability._

 _That having been said, I don't expect this to appeal to everyone. If you like it, Great! If not, oh well! Also! The Character Thalomus is an OC of mine and I will not be delving much, if at all, into his background, history, and Character. This story is still about Harry Potter._

Obligatory stupidity _(_ _ **Disclaimer**_ _): is a non-profit website which promotes and provides a place for writers of all types and skill levels to post their versions of legally copyrighted material a.k.a fanfiction, on the basis that because it is legally not for profit, it is therefore not in any_ _ **REAL**_ _sense harming either the author or the publishing company. In short….get a real hobby_

Chapter one: Number 12 Grimmauld Place

Harry Potter was an unusual baby boy for a number of reasons. First of all he had a shock of untidy flyaway hair which refused to cooperate. He had two parents who had come from two very different worlds, and an aunt and uncle who are mortally afraid of anyone learning that they were related but most peculiar of all was a strange scar on his four head, just above the orbit of his left eye.

It looked as though someone had branded a lightning bolt shape into the skin. This scare was in fact the only physical evidence that Harry Potter, though just barely a year old was indeed—different!

Though how different he couldn't have guessed, nor could he have guessed that at that very moment all across the country there were feasts and parties going on to celebrate something he would not remember; indeed something he was too young to even understand or care about.

Instead he was fast asleep under a bundle blankets inside a beautifully decorated wooden cradle which was rocking gently side to side as though moved by invisible hands.

Sitting next to the cradle in a wooden armchair was a black haired man, who one might have thought, based on how he was dressed, had just been to a Renaissance Festival and mascaraiding as some sort of fantasy Black Knight, if the black clothes and visible chain mail sleeves were anything to go by.

His face although nicely shaped was ghostly pale. The skin was very smooth and oddly free of blemishes like the picture of a model on the cover of a magazine after it had been airbrushed. To tell the truth his face would not have been unbecoming of a pretty woman accept for the odd fact that his lower lip was colored with black lipstick while his upper lip was colored a deep red.

Both eyes were wide and a pointed at the upper and lower edges so that he looked almost like an Egyptian painting, but the most striking thing about is eyes were not their shape but there color. The irises were a mixture of deep purple with red lines in-between and all around the large patches of purple.

This man's name was Thalomus Malcoff, though there were a few knew him as Thalomus Melcova Black, a name he hated almost as much as he hated Lord Voldemort, the man who was responsible for giving little Harry his scar.

Thalomus was leaning his head back against the headrest of the chair he was in and gazing tiredly off into space.

The only sounds in the room that could be heard were the soft creaking of the wooden cradles rockers and the occasional loud pop or cracking sound coming from the nearby fireplace which was the only source of light in the otherwise dark and gloomy living room.

It had only been a few hours since he had arrived here, carrying Harry in a bundle of blankets and slowly making his way to the Library softly cursing when his shin accidentally hit a coffee table, a wand in one hand and Harry held carefully but firmly in his other.

"Lumos!" he whispered softly, causing the tip of his wand to shine brightly and allowing him to see more clearly that the room, though dusty and cobwebbed was none the less empty.

Once convinced that no one was around and there was no immediate danger he'd pointed his wand at the empty fireplace and two huge balls of flame came shooting out of it creating the roaring fire they now had (he'd since added wood to the fire and was allowing it to burn naturally).

After placing the still sleeping Harry in a cradle he had brought down from one of the upper floors he then unbuckled a sword that was hanging from his belt and placed it softly on the floor between himself and Harry knowing it wouldn't really do him much good here, unless it was to for intimidation purposes, or desperate need.

It was a pretty thing; black handled with a jewel encrusted pommel and gold trimmed guards. The Sheath of the sword was a black as coal with a slightly glossy look to it as though it had been painted over in lacquer. On the handle itself were carved a series of strange slanting symbols that obviously only meant something to Thalomus as he was the one who had cut them into the material.

Stranger still was that blades were his preferred weapons; though he was a wizard and not a half bad one at that, Thalomus still preferred to have a more traditional melee weapon rather than simply relying on a wand.

But there wasn't much chance he would need them here. Only one person in the world knew where he was currently and that one person was also his strongest ally and the only man he truly trusted.

Besides, the room they were in was not really ideal for a sword use and swords were by their very nature usually best kept as outdoor weapons.

Since having arrived and putting Harry in a more suitable bed, he'd started to lower his guard somewhat. He knew it wasn't necessary to be totally on guard now, no one apart from Dumbledore knew he'd already fetched little Harry from what had only hours ago been his parents' home or that he was now hiding in the Long abandoned home of the Black family.

The Irony of which would have made him laugh if he were not so tired at the moment.

Suddenly the fireplace roared with even greater intensity and the yellow flames turned to emerald green, filling the room with green light.

Thalomus leapt out of the chair and immediately put himself between it and Harry, his wand arm was fully stretched as he crouched into a fighting position, every muscle in his body was tensing up like a tightly coiled spring, ready to launch him into action at whoever it was that had somehow…linked this house with the fluu network.

A moment later a tall elderly man with half-moon spectacles, a very long beard, and a long crooked nose stepped out of the fire.

He didn't move for a moment, though that was because he was waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light and not because there was a man pointing a wand ready to attack if he made any sign of doing so.

After a moment the man looked around and upon seeing Thalomus, actually smiled!

"Good evening Thalomus," said the old man in a pleasant voice.

Thalomus was still crouched and looking like a wild tiger ready to spring onto its prey. After a few moments he lowered his wand slowly but didn't stand.

"What was my mother's real name?" Said Thalomus in a rough tone of voice.

"Not convinced I'm Dumbledore, are you?"

Thalomus narrowed his eyes but didn't speak.

Still smiling politely the old man replied, "Da'Shawnda". And with that Thalomus finally relaxed and stood back up convinced that this was indeed Albus Dumbledore and not an imposter.

"At what point were you planning on telling me you were coming? And how did you get here by flu powder anyway?" he asked Dumbledor sharply.

"I asked a friend of mine at the ministry if he would mind doing me a favor and temporarily provide me this connection. And I though it much safer then taking either a port key, or broomstick, or using apparition."

Thalomus turned around without speaking and sat back down in the wooden chair next to Harry who hadn't made a sound this whole time.

Dumbledore also came over silently and peered down at the sleeping infant in the cradle who to his surprise had shown no signs of even being mildly disturbed by the sudden commotion. After a moment or two he straightened back up and turned his attention towards Thalomus who was again resting himself in the wooden chair.

"How has he been?" Dumbledore asked

"Fine," replied Thalomus dully, not bothering to look at Dumbledore. "Considering what he's been through"

"Yes!" Dumbledore agreed sadly. "And how is that scar on his forehead?"

Thalomus gave a half shrug and grunted softly. "I'm not a Medi-Wizard Albus, but as far as I can tell it's harmless"

"So what so important you need to go dropping in on me unexpectedly, Or is this call a social one?"

Dumbledore suddenly look serious, as though whatever had brought him was weighing heavily on his mind.

"I need to sit down a moment. It has been a very long day today," he reached into his satin blue robes, pulled out his own wand and literally began to draw himself a wooden rocking chair on which he sat down heaving a deed sigh, "That's better!"

When he'd had the chance to make himself comfortable he turned his attention towards Thalomus who was still staring off into the darkness.

"To start off with-"Dumbledore began, "-there has been a good deal talk about the tragic events of today and particularly the reason behind Lord Voldemort's disappearance."

He allowed himself to pause and gauge Thalomus's reaction; the reaction was total indifference. It seemed that as far as he was concerned, people could say whatever they liked

"While most of them are accurate; that is to say, they know he tried and failed to kill little Harry here'', he waved his hand vaguely in the direction of Harry.

"The exact reason for this failure is unknown. Though that has not stopped people from wildly speculating. Indeed people are calling Harry _the boy who lived_ , _the hero who made the dark Lord vanish_ and other such things."

"Get to the damn point Albus!" Thalomus angrily hissed, clearly not interested in what ' _people were saying_ '

"The reason I have come to see you Thalomus", said Dumbledore calmly, "is that while Lord Voldemort may be gone, many of his Death Eaters have no doubt gone to ground. Some will be arrested naturally and others will probably go into hiding."

"However, do not doubt for even a minute Thalomus, that among his most fanatical and devoted followers there are even now, those who are bending all of their will towards finding Voldemort and bringing him back to power."

Little Harry shuffled slightly in his crib and let out a soft sigh causing Thalomus to look down at him again.

"Which is why-" Dumbledore said solemnly, "I need to discuss with you about where Harry is going to stay from now on."

At these words Thalomus finally turned his attention to Dumbledore. His expression was one of impassive disinterest but not his eyes. His eyes had turned dark, as though he knew where this was going and didn't want to hear it.

"I'm his Godfather Albus!" he said in a low even tone.

"Yes!" Said Dumbledore bracingly, holding up a hand. "You are, and while I have little doubt Harry would be in quite capable hands—I feel that it would be better, indeed it would be safer if he were to go somewhere else"

Thalomus's face didn't change but he did slowly and without saying a word reach down and pick up his sword and placed it across his lap.

Dumbledore made no comment about this and instead continued on, "I have given this a great deal of thought as to where Harry should go—and I have decided that the best place for him will be with his Aunt and Uncle on his Mothers side."

Having finished, Dumbledore put his hands in his lap and peered ruefully at Thalomus who now seemed to be idly examining the sword in his lap as though nothing in the world were more interesting or more important than it!

The empty silence dragged on for several minutes, during which time Thalomus kept fingering the handle of his sword as though inspecting it for blemishes or damage while Dumbledore watched him calmly, waiting for a response.

"I made a promise to Lily and James, Dumbledore-" said Thalomus at last breaking the silence.

"I swore to them that if anything happened to them I would take care of Harry for them."

"I don't doubt it!" Replied Dumbledore softly

"I even offered once to make an unbreakable vow,-"

"Did you now?" Dumbledore asked sounding slightly surprised

He nodded gravely, "-I did!"

"But James wouldn't hear of it, he said it was too much to ask, I tried to argue but Lily…Lily talked me down from it."

Dumbledore only nodded.

"I have no doubt that both Lily and James would be overjoyed to know you are doing your utmost to keep your word to them Thalomus, _**however**_!" He stressed the last part particularly.

"I fear you do not realize the danger Harry now faces, not to mention the enormous responsibility you are undertaking. It was because of Lily that Harry survived the killing curse. She gave her life to protect him and by so doing has granted him powerful protection."

"You know this how?" Asked Thalomus, and accusatory note in his voice.

"Know?-" Replied Dumbledore, "I know many things Thalomus. The fact that Harry is alive, alive with only a tiny scar on his four head when no witch or wizard has ever survived the killing curse, with perhaps one other possible exception, is proof that Harry now has powerful protection. I know that Tom Riddle never has and never will understand such things. Nor will many of his vile servants and based on that, I do not doubt that Harry will be protected while with his aunt and uncle."

"But some of Voldemort's followers, who _ **you**_ know are almost as evil as he is, will stop at nothing to find Harry and kill him"

"And if they try!-" Thalomus cut in; "I'll personally drag each one of them to the ninth circle-of Hell!"

"No doubt you would Thalomus! But you also know that they are among the most vile, and ruthless of dark wizards, and-"

Thalomus suddenly shot up out of his chair, drew his sword and held it at the low ready as he glared at Dumbledore, his eyes were now blood red and glowing, the sclera black as coal as he now began shouting.

"WHAT IN HELL IS YOUR POINT DUMBLEDORE?" "I'M RUTHLESS! I'M VILE! I'M EVIL AND I'M A MONSTER! ISN'T THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT ME FOR YEARS! WELL—ISN'T IT!"

"No Thalomus, you are not!" said Dumbledore who surprisingly had maintained his composure this whole time, his expression was still calm in his hands were still resting in his lap, but the sight of him sitting there calmly seemed to somehow snap Thalomus out of it.

The color of Thalomus's eyes returned to their original state and for a few minutes all that could be heard with a high pitched sobs of the baby Harry who'd been woken up by his sudden outburst.

Thalomus calmly re-sheathed his sword and put it beside the fireplace, he then reached down and with surprising calmness picked up Harry and started to slowly rock him side to side until he finally calmed down.

Once Harry had finally gone back to sleep Thalomus put him back into the cradle and sat back down turning his attention back to Dumbledore and with a look of shame on his face.

"Thalomus," said Dumbledore doggedly, "Your intentions are both good and noble-,"

Thalomus's face turned very cold and he began muttering strange words in a guttural tone, words that no ordinary person, muggle or wizard would understand. For they were in a language that precious few have ever known and even fewer would have had the courage to speak aloud.

For the first time since he arrived Dumbledore frowned at Thalomus and shook his head.

"Now really," said Dumbledore sounding disappointed, "there is no need for that kind of talk!"

Thalomus was again silent for a time as Dumbledore allowed him to pour over this new information in his mind.

"If you intend to take him Dumbledore, then you're going to have to pry him from my cold dead arms, then he'll have doubled the protection, won't he?!"

Dumbledore heaved a deep sigh sounding very tired and looking if possible even older than usual.

"So that's your answer then?"

Thalomus nodded slightly

"And nothing I say is going to change your mind?"

"Nothing!"

"You really intend to die protecting Harry then?"

"Damn straight!" Growled Thalomus

"Well—Than I have no further business here,"

Thalomus didn't respond but instead looked up at Dumbledore who was wasn't smiling but seemed to have accepted this and said "You will keep me informed of how he is doing, won't you?"

"Yes!" Replied Thalomus, also without smiling

"Well then I really must be off. Do take care won't you!"

He stood up and reached into his pocket and took out a small leather pouch, dipped his fingers into it and through a bit of flew powder into the fire.

Thalomus didn't speak or move as he watched Dumbledore step into the green flames and call out, "the leaky cauldron!" And with a sudden whoosh! He vanished.

When the flames in the fireplace return to their normal yellow and he was sure that Dumbledore was gone Thalomus peered down at Harry who was miraculously still sound asleep.

As he did so he thought about everything that had happened that day and about what Dumbledore had said to him.

His last words for that night would be, "what have I gotten myself into?"

 _End of chapter 1_

 _P.S. English writing might as well be rocket science to me as English is my worst subject and I know it, so don't waste your time bemoaning it to me, because it isn't going to change anything! Though we all know you'll do it anyway._


	2. Chapter 2

Obligatory stupidity (Disclaimer): is a non-profit website which promotes and provides a place for writers of all types and skill levels to post their versions of legally copyrighted material a.k.a fanfiction, on the basis that because it is legally not for profit, it is therefore not in any REAL sense harming either the other or the publishing company.

Chapter 2

Harry Age 14 Months

Not for the first time Thalomus found himself being awoken in the middle of the night from a peaceful and not coincidentally, much needed sleep. The could be found coming from the crib which was not far from the bed in the master bedroom of Number 12 Grimmuald Place.

A small black-haired boy with emerald green eyes and wearing a red and gold woolly jumper, was sitting up in his crib crying.

Thalomus had moved Harry from his previous bedroom to his after a particularly unpleasant incident that had taken place only a few weeks after he'd brought Harry here from the wreckage of his parents former house.

He'd woken up in the middle of the night, must as he had now to the sound of Harry crying and went to check on him.

He'd been expecting either find Harry needing a diaper change or just needing to be put back to sleep, instead it was to find the house elf Kreacher, dangling Harry upside down by his ankle and swinging him back and forth like some sort of giddy school girl with a bag.

The elf was singing in usual his a wheezy, croaking voice a very disgusting and all together mocking version of a lullaby, and clearly enjoying tormenting the helpless baby Harry.

Thalomus wasted no time and sprang into action; whipping out his wand and pointing it at Kreacher he'd yelled, "ASSIO HARRY".

Harry suddenly flew out of Kreacher's grip and towards Thalomus like he'd been shot out of a cannon causing Thalomus to let out an 'Oompf!' of surprise when Harry collided with his chest, still crying but now safely in his free arm.

He gave Harry a quick look to see if there was any visible damage but found none, then he turned his attention towards Kreacher who was standing as though petrified his mouth was still open, stuck halfway in the process of forming words, his right hand was still outstretched where harry had been only a second ago.

Under any other circumstances it may have looked comical, but right now it was only digging his own grave.

Kreachers head turned slowly towards Thalomus who still had his wand pointed at him, the elf's red bloodshot eyes were wide with shock as he gazed silently at Thalomus.

"You!-" he said in a slow and deadly tone of voice, "-have just two seconds to give me one good reason not to pull the bones from your crooked body, Kreacher!"

"Kreacher wasn't doing anything," he croaked, "Kreacher heard young master crying and came to help, so Master could rest." He then straightened up and bowed to Thalomus in a ridicules fashion.

But he made the mistake of muttering under his breath, "Kreacher wanted to give the Potter brat a taste of his own medicine, oh yes! Waking Kreacher up in the middle of the night he is, soiling the house of my Mistress, yes. Next time Kreacher with have to break the little half-blood maggot bones before Master shows."

It was enough, he lunged at Kreacher with such speed the elf didn't have time to register before Thalomus delivered a powerful roundhouse kick that sent Kreacher flying across the room and into the wall with a loud and sickening CRACK!

Several seconds passed and Kreacher didn't move, for a second it looked to Thalomus that he might be dead, but he wasn't that lucky. Kreacher groaned in pain as he fell from hit the wall which now had a house elf shaped indentation in it and fell limply to the ground still groaning.

Thalomus walked slowly over to the elf and gazed down at him with an expressionless face, though his irises had turned faintly red.

"Try something like that again Kreacher and I'll do worse than break a few bones and you'll scream for the sweet mercy of death. Then, just after you scream for death, death is exactly what you will get, while looking into the eyes of someone who has neither mercy nor pity!"

Kreacher looked back up at him with an expression of the deepest loathing and contempt but seemed unwilling to push his luck further right now.

He had some difficulty with getting up, his legs seemed to be having trouble supporting him and his eyes looked a little unfocused. He shook his head once or twice flapping his bat like ears back and forth as though trying to get water out of his ears.

"Master must do as master sees fit" he said as he slowly started to half walk, half limp away all the while muttering as though he thought Thalomus cannot hear him, "But master will not kill Kreacher, no! He's promised he has, oh yes! He promised the old Blood traitor that he will not kill or dismiss Kreacher. So Kreacher can continue to do what he likes to the Potter brat, yes!"

Thalomus suddenly kicked Kreacher so hard that he actually ended up with his head imbedded in the wall of the hallway outside of Harry's room.

He hated to admit it, but Kreacher was right, Dumbledore had asked or rather it felt more like he'd coerced him into swearing that he wouldn't kill or dismiss Kreacher from the house.

Since that time Thalomus had decided that the best place for Harry was in the Master bedroom with him and so far it had worked. Kreacher hadn't done so much as look at Harry without him knowing about it.

The tradeoff of course was that now it was easy for Harry to wake him up at the most inconvenient times of the night.

Throwing off the covers of the bed and placing his feet on the wooden floor Thalomus stood up, said "lights" and the lamps I the room suddenly came on.

From his crib Harry cold see Thalomus and promptly stood up and grabbed hold of the rail, using it for stability he started to a kind of half squat, half jig in his crib all the while coaxing badly to be picked up.

Yawning and stretching Thalomus made his way over to the crib, reached down and inside and picked Harry up and placed him over his shoulder.

Once he was safely in Thalomus's arms he grabbed hold of Thalomus night shirt in his little fists and proceeded to rest his head down on his shoulder. Content that he was safe, little Harry started to go back to sleep as Thalomus slowly leaned side to side in a slow rocking motion.

Thalomus couldn't help but heave a deep sigh of relief as the prospect that tonight was not going to be another long one, and that Harry might actually be asleep again soon.

He wondered idly how Lily and James had managed? The long nights, the frequent wake ups, and the utter exhaustion. Not to mention…Kreacher!

The incident that had made him decide to take Harry into his room had not been the first, but it would be the last.

Once he'd caught Kreacher trying to smuggle a Boggart into Harry's room. Then he'd awoke to discover Kreacher dangling Harry over the top of the staircase like a worm on a hook, at others Kreacher had tried to slip poison into Harry's bottles or set loose a cage of Doxies.

Considered all that, and al he'd gone through It sometimes made him wonder, if he had the chance to do it all over again, would he?

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have to constantly keep an eye out for the old elf. Personally he'd wanted to dismiss the elf from the Moment he'd arrived, but Dumbledore had told him not to.

But when He'd angrily asked why Dumbledore wouldn't say.

Indeed, if Thalomus hadn't known better he would have thought that keeping Kreacher around was a way for him to try an force him to give Harry up but making it too difficult to take care of him.

Dumbledore had been rather unhappy with him about refusing to let him take Harry to his Aunt and Uncles and it had made him wonder what (apart from what he'd been told on that night) was so special about them that Dumbledore was prepared to send Harry to go and live with two people that from what Lily had told him _hated wizards_.

It had been a cloudy Monday morning when Thalomus had decided that he would do a little investigating into Lily's sister Petunia and her Husband Vernon. He'd already tracked down several likely addresses of where he might find them and had made up his mind to do a bit of surveillance to get a better idea of what they were like.

Of course he wasn't about to leave Harry alone with Kreacher but didn't think it was a good idea either to take him with him as it would make things unnecessarily complicated.

Instead he'd arranged to leave Harry with the Weasleys while he went and looked up Harry's Aunt and Uncle.

Instead of going by broom stick he'd decided to take the muggle bus which would be far less likely to run the risk of attracting attention; he had dressed like he belonged to what he'd heard Muggles refer to as _Goth-Subculture_ with his hair looking like it always did accept he'd decided to color his tips red and decided to go with black and purple lipstick and a touch of eyeliner.

While a few people had looked at him warily as he walked the street to the bus station no one said anything, indeed most people acted as if they didn't even notice him, which was, exactly what he wanted.

As he rode on the bus to Privit Drive he thought about what Lilly had told him about Petunia, which hand't been very much other than that she distinctly disliked her sister Lilly and that the last time she'd seen her was before she'd started her 7th year at Hogwarts.

After that Lilly had moved away and Petunia had never bothered to answer any of her letters so that Lilly had quickly given up.

Beyond that, Thalomus had nothing to go on, no physical description, no address, accept the ones he'd looked up, nothing.

Well that wasn't anything new now was it? He'd had to go off of less than that when he'd Been in the _Hunters_.

And some of the people he'd gone after in those days, well most of them actually, had been death eaters wearing masks and using every form of magic available to keep people from discovering them.

The bus had started to de-accelerate as it approached the next bus stop. Thalomus looked up at the map on the ceiling and saw that he still had two more stops before he got to Privet drive.

Just then his thoughts were interrupted by the most awful screaming he'd heard in a while and it caused him to tense up slightly as unpleasant memories came flooding back and for the briefest of moments his right hand had gripped his want to pull it out and to the ready while his left had reached to grasp a blade that was not currently there.

The cause of the noise as quickly revealed as a tall, boney woman with large horsey front teeth and a long neck could be seen struggling to hold onto a screaming toddler.

Or at least he thought it was a toddler, actually he thought it looked more like a botchling in a striped shirt and small denim shorts or a deranged cherubim; it had watery blue eyes which were set into a small fat head and topped by a patch of blond hair.

He watched dispassionately as it failed, kicked its small feet and screamed at the top of its voice like Kharon himself were trying to drag it to the ninth circle of Hell.

Which, he silently amended, was probably where it came from.

The Woman was unflappable despite the noise and the shocked and incredulous looks of the passengers, who looked like they didn't know what to make of the scene before them. That didn't stop some however from getting up and looking as though they had rather get off than continue further.

"Is everything alright Mum?" asked the Busman who looked both confused and a little revolted.

"Of course," she replied smiling awkwardly as the child proceeded to start kicking her as fast as he could and biting her hand and wrist.

Looking incredulous the Busman opened his mouth, clearly about to say something about the toddler but then seemed to think better of it and chose to stay quite.

 _Good move old man!_ Thought Thalomus approvingly, as he had an odd feeling that it wouldn't have done any good. He did however let out a derisive snort and made a small face of disgust at the memory of Molly Weasly judging him on his parenting skills while watching what would have been funny on TV but was really just grating now.

As far as he was concerned they could make him father of the year compared to this lady. And speaking of which. . .

The woman had turned to look at him when he'd snorted, though he doubted she'd really heard him; how could she?

Never the less her face turned from one of apparent annoyance to one of outright disgust and horror as she spotted Thalomus and took in his appearance.

"You got a problem. . .Mum?" he said coldly

She didn't respond, words seemed to have failed her for the moment.

It was only when the bus had finally got going again that she seemed to snap out of it and dragging the screaming fatling made her way past him as quickly as possible taking an empty seat as far away as she could.

Thalomus did his best to ignore the continuing wails and cries from the woman and her son until they arrived at the bus stop nearest his destination and wasted no time in getting off the bus.

So to, did the woman, by now her son had screamed himself horse but had not stopped thrashing around and sounded rather like a wheezing old man with asthma than the house ape he clearly was.

Behind him she was eyeing him with a mixture of fear and disgust. Petunia Dersly had been out for a walk and to look at some dinning ware from a sot that specialized in kitchen wares. She'd decided to take her two year old son Dudly with her so he could spend some time outside with her.

The dishes she'd seen on display were truly exquisite, a brand new line that was being imported from China, very beautiful and very expensive. She'd have to talk to Vernon about it over dinner as he usually was in a good mood during dinner time.

When she'd gotten on the Bus to return home she'd distinctly heard a derisive snort from the front row of the bus, directly parallel to the Busman. Turning to see who it was and to tell them off for being rude she'd found herself unable to speak, as though the words had gotten stuck in her throat.

There! Sitting in the front row was what had to be the vilest looking freak of a man she had ever seen. But what had stopped her more than the shock of his appearance were his eyes, or rather his visible eye.

The color was the most unnatural she'd ever seen, probably contacts, or something, but most of all it was the look! His eyes were the eyes of a killer she was sure, a cold unfeeling killer and right now they were saying "Try me! I dare you!"

When the bus had started to move again she'd come to her senses again and immediately had done her best to get herself and her little Dee'dums away from that _freak!_

When she'd seen him get off at the Bus stop near privet drive her heart froze. This couldn't be happening, why was that filthy degenerate getting off near her Home?

Shew as certain he didn't live here, as she had gotten to know (spied on really) virtually every person on Privet Drive and she would remember if she'd seen a- well she'd know if she had.

Was he trying to find out where she lived? It seemed likely, probably trying to snatch Dudley or rob the house or worse.

Thalomus looked around at the road lined with identical houses, each one a two story cookie cutter replica of the next. The sign near him said 'Privit Drive' and since was the closest of the addresses he'd looked up it was fairly logical to start here.

Petunia watched in trepidation as the freak walked casually down the street towards hers and Vernon's home.

Dudley who hadn't stopped having a tantrum this whole time seemed to have at last exhausted his energy. His throat was now so hoarse he couldn't even manage a whisper, his arms and legs were like wet noodles which dangled from his shoulders and hips so that he couldn't even stand and instead had to be dragged along by his mother, who was so preoccupied with the supposed intentions of the stranger, hadn't even realized his predicament.

As Thalomus walked along the side walk he kept his head forward and instead used his eyes to look at the numbers on the houses. The one he was looking for was #4, the one he would be doing his own one man stake out for a while.

By this time he would have taken out wand and cast a disillusionment charm, but as the Duchess of Yuck and her son Sir Lunchalot were still behind him he could only wait until they were gone or he'd have to take a detour out of site where he wouldn't be seen.

Pretending he still had a ways to go yet he continued walking on past the house with the number 4 on it.

"Found it" he thought to himself as he continued to walk until he'd reached #6, there he stopped, and turned around.

 _Gone!_ He thought in surprise, "I wonder? You don't suppose?"

Actually he did think, in fact he was almost certain he was right.

Petunia had never been so nervous in her life, not even when she'd told Vernon about her freak of a sister Lily.

As soon as she'd seen the stranger pass by Number 4 she'd bolted. So desperate to get indoors that she didn't notice she was dragging Dudley like a rag doll.

Once she'd gotten through the door she rushed to the living room, peered through the curtains and saw what she'd feared: Nothing! There was no sign of him.

Hart hammering she rushed back to the front door checked and made sure she locked the deadbolt. She then rushed into the kitchen, grabbed the phone and hurriedly began dialing.

Outside Thalomus was in a state of wonder. There was no way that fraking ugly skank could be related to Lily! And that basketball she had with her? What that really her son?

He shook his head in disbelief, unable to believe it. How could someone like Lily have a sister who looked like her Father had gotten drunk one night had rodgerd a troll in an inebriated state of arousal?

Maybe! He thought to himself with a grin, he had just remembered Umbridge and had to admit it was possible, though unlikely.

Petunia slammed the Kitchen phone so hard on its base that she nearly smashed it.

"Stupid, useless, people!" she spat, she'd just gotten done unloading a long diatribe at the secretary of the Police department for refusing to come after she'd called them a bunch of incompetent, lazy gits. As soon as she'd picked up the phone she'd dialed the police department.

The moment someone answered she'd gone into a frenzy, going on about how she and her son were under attack by a homicidal dizzy and somehow managed to confuse walking a good 50 feet or more behind Thalomus, into having to run at full tilt while a maniac was only feet behind her wielding a pair of machetes.

When the Secretary had asked her to calm down so she could get a clearer picture of what was going on, (because none of it made any sense) She'd gone even more into a frenzy and was practically demanding the Queens own body Guards come and deal with this madman at once.

The Secretary had tried again to get some information but all that did was send Petunia completely into orbit.

From there things quickly disintegrated until Aunt Petunia was telling the Secretary about how they were going to sue the police for their negligence and how she hoped it taught them a lesion when she and her son were dead.

During this time Dudley had been regaining his strength and felt the need to start throwing a tantrum again, although it was a very mild one, for Dudley that is!

Vernon Dursly was the owner of a company called Grunnings which made drills. He was a big beefy man with hardly any neck and a large very bushy mustache. Currently he was on his way home from work and was in a very good mood today. Not only had his company made a deal with an overseas buyer for a very large quantity of drills, he'd also talked up the price they were willing to pay for each drill.

He'd also berated his plant manager, threatened to take away vacations, bonuses from his employees but had also fired a number of the older ones for no good reason but had claimed they had been late.

He didn't think that anything could ruin his good mood and now he was nearly home. He pulled into the driveway turned off the engine and got out his car. He'd barely closed the door when he suddenly got a funny feeling that made his good mood evaporate almost instantly.

It was an odd feeling, almost like déjà vu and it made him suddenly recall, without wishing to, _that day!_

That day had been only a few weeks ago and he'd been in a very god mood then too and had gone to get a bun from the bakery when he had run into a weird looking old man dressed in a cloak and talking nonsense about ' _you know who', 'Muggles,'_ and other such rubbish.

That had been bad enough he had thought but then he'd heard the name 'Potter' and 'Harry'. It had rattled him so much that he'd gone home early and had braved asking his wife Petunia about her. . .her sister!?

The memory gave him an odd chill that he couldn't explain. He looked around expecting to see a tabby cat with strange marking looking at him, but there was none. The street was completely empty and yet! And yet he had the most unpleasant feeling that someone was watching him, someone who wished him nothing but I'll.

Normally he would have just shrugged it off or laughed about it, he hadn't yet met the man who he couldn't bully, but the feeling of unease was unlike any he had ever felt before.

Confused and unnerved Vernon Dursley hastily made his way to the front door. By the time he'd reached the door he was almost panicking, his heart was beating very quickly and his hands had begun to shake.

With fumbling fingers he tried unsuccessfully to insert his house key into the lock and twice he nearly dropped it.

"Oh come on, work blast you!" he whispered as he struggled to turn the deadbolt. There was a loud click and turned the handle and opened the door.

Thalomus had watched the whole thing unfold from the edge of the lawn. Mr. Dursley hadn't been able to see him due to a spell he'd used earlier which when cast caused the casters body to bend light rather reflect it.

If Vernon had been looking closely enough at the right spot he might have noticed an odd distortion at the far end of the yard, a distortion which from the right angle looked almost like a human torso or something like it.

That was the problem with that spell, it was best used when you were in a position to lie still and remain in one place for a long time. Trying to move around with it activated distorted the space around the caster causing ripples to appear around your body as the light wrapped around you. All a reasonably intelligent person had to do was look for these telltale ripples and they would know someone was there.

But if used from a distance and if you lie reasonably still, it was a great way to observe unsuspecting targets, without raising suspicion. It was especially effective at night!

Thalomus spent the rest of the day on Privit drive, listening in the conversations within and growing more and more convinced that not only were these Lily's in-laws but they were the worst excuse for human beings he had met, barring some of the Death eaters and a few werewolves of course.

 _Harry Age_

Grimmauld place, a crowded street located in the inner city, it was an old neighborhood whose golden years had slipped away and was starting to show the signs of its age. It was still a relatively peaceful neighborhood despite the occasional trouble from second rate street gangs. The streets were not as well maintained as they may have once been and there were some signs of petty graffiti on a few of the narrow alleyways.

But the truly odd thing was the way the houses were numbered, number 11 skipped to number 13 seamlessly as though the planners had somehow overlooked the numbering of one house.

Even stranger was the fact that the residents of the other houses seemed to not even notice. To them it just seemed completely normal for there to be a house missing, even passersby didn't take any notice at the odd numbering.

But there was a house on Grimmauld Place, right in-between numbers 11 and 13. What more it belonged to Thalomus Malcoff and his adopted Son Harry.

Harry had a room on the second floor, it wasn't a very big room but then he didn't need it to be. The inside of the room was darkly colored and somewhat grim and gloomy looking, as though the original owners had a certain fancy for dark and foreboding.

It was not for a lack of trying however, Molly Weasly along with the help of a few others had tried to change the overall atmosphere of the house but had, had little to no success. When they had tried to remove the dark wallpaper in some of the rooms they were shocked to find that it wouldn't come off and so they tried instead to simply cover it up with new brighter wallpaper.

This too had failed as the wallpaper refused to stick no matter what they tried to do to it. They then tried simply painting over it but that had failed as well; the paint seemed to refuse to dry and instead just ran down the walls and onto the floors.

Bill Weasly, who was the oldest of Mrs. Weaslys children and who had volunteered to help over the summer holidays with cleaning the house, commented: "You know, I wonder if the whole house hasn't got some sort of repelling spell on it! You know like the sort they use to keep certain places clean like at St. Mungos"

"You may be right dear!" sighed Mrs. Weasly wiping sweat from her brow after having just finished cleaning up the mess the paint had created.

While some may have thought as what they were doing as cleaning others would have sworn they were at war with the house, which seemed to have a malevolent presence about it, left over from its former owners.

And in that sense the house was putting up one hell of a fight, between the doxies, boggarts, and cursed possessions, one of which was a tail jacket that had attacked poor Mr. Weasly and tried to strangle him when he'd attempted to remove it; and of course the most constant irritant of all. . . Kreacher!

He kept creeping in wherever they were congregated and kept trying to nick small items before they could be thrown away.

Thalomus however knew Kreacher tricks and knew where he kept stashing the items he took. So he was always able to get them back and dispose of them, though a few times he'd had to give Kreacher a hard reminder not to cross him.

By far the hardest task they had had to undertake was the removing of the Portrait of Mrs. Black, Sirius's mother.

She screamed and screamed, bellowed every foul insult she could think of at them and demanding they leave. They all ignored her of course and Thalomus made sure to charm the bedroom where Harry was taking a nap so the noise wouldn't wake him.

At first it seemed like a simple matter of taking it down, but the portrait wouldn't budge.

"Wretched Bitch," growled Thalomus after trying for almost an hour to pry the portrait off, "Probably put a permanent sticking charm on the back of it"

"You watch your language Thalomus!" snapped Mrs. Weasley who rounded on him swelling like a bull frog.

"I'll talk any Damn way I feel like Molly, you're not my fracking mother, alright!"

"Molly" said Mr. Weasley before his wife could retort back, "Why don't you go make us some Tea? I think we're all feeling a bit-stressed!"

Mrs. Weasley shot Mr. Weasley a nasty look which caused him to wince slightly before she turned on her heels and stormed off to the Kitchen.

Mrs. Black was still screaming none stop, but no one payed her any mind, least of all Bill and Charlie Weasley who looked both shocked and impressed at Thalomus.

It was in a very low whisper that Mr. Weasley spoke to Thalomus, obviously trying to keep what he was saying private from his sons and the other people who had come to help.

"Thalomus", he said, a slight note of pleading in his voice. "I know you and Molly don't see eye to eye—on a lot of things but. . .please!"

Thalomus gave him a sideways glance and nodded slightly. Mr. Weasley smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

Eventually it was agreed upon that the only way to get rid of the portrait of Mrs. Black was to completely remove the section of wall she was attached to and replace with new. The whole process didn't take more than 20 min, and in no time flat the wall was fully restored and portion that had Mrs. Black's portrait was removed from the house.

It took nearly eight months from beginning to end to completely purge Number 12 Grimmauld place of any dangerous objects, most of the Blacks possessions, with a few exceptions were tossed out and any lingering pests were dealt with—Accept for Kreacher.

Thalomus was still angry at Dumbledore who had recently told him again, 'that Kreacher was not to be cast out, nor was he to be killed or seriously harmed.'

That was all well and dandy! Thalomus had thought, except Dumbledore wasn't the one having to keep a constant wary eye on the elf, whose behavior had gotten steadily more brazen, culminating in the night Thalomus had caught him swinging Harry like a basket.

After having threatened him, Kreacher decided to switch tactics, after all, Thalomus had only said he couldn't go near or touch Harry, but that left other avenues open.

So instead of trying to physically torment Harry Kreacher took to booby trapping the house, very inexpertly to be sure, but still it was a nuisance.

When that had ended he'd started hiding things, first he'd tried hiding all of Harry's diapers and bottles, which ended up being short lived when Thalomus, knowing the elf's weak spot actually allowed Harry to pee all over the floor, sending the elf into epileptic convulsions the likes of which even Dudley would have been proud.

Thalomus had enjoyed watching the elf writhing on the floor and frothing at the mouth in a berserk tantrum; however when Kreacher had threatened to kill Harry Thalomus was all seriousness.

He drew his sword and pointing it at Kreacher said, "Give me an excuse elf, please, give me an excuse!"

Kreacher had stopped his tantrum almost at once and while looking at Thalomus upside down seemed to actually regret his careless threat.

A whole minuet passed before Kreacher slowly and quietly got off the floor and after shooting a nasty look at him and Harry he walked away.

Ever since that time Kreacher rarely appeared, instead he seemed to have taken to haunting the cellar where he liked to pace back and forth muttering to himself and wallowing in self-pity.

Though he rarely ever caused trouble anymore Thalomus was always careful never to let Harry go down to the cellar without him.

Harry opened his eyes blearily and looked around his darkened room.

The poster of the Chudly Cannons Ron had given him was on the wall opposite him and the quiddich players were waving at him cheerfully as he sat up in his bed and started to feel around for his glasses.

As he felt around for them he wondered idly if Kreacher had gone and stolen them again?

Kreacher was always stealing his things and hiding them from him, though there was no way to prove absolutely that it was him, who else could it be? His dad certainly wouldn't because he knew Thalomus had no sense of humor.

Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the door to his room fallowed by a loud call from Thalomus, "Get up Harry, you've got training to do".

He yawned, stretched and resumed the search for his glasses which he found were strangely on the floor next to his bed.

When he come down a few minutes later; dressed in a pair of basketball shorts and a dull blue shirt, it was to find Thalomus waiting for him in the hallway, dressed in a similar fashion and with a loaded gym bag over his shoulder.

He hadn't bothered to put on any make up yet and had his hair tied behind him in a tight ponytail.

As soon as he spotted Harry he gave a sideways jerk of his head for Harry to fallow him and headed out the door, Harry in tow.

It was still cool outside when the pair of them stepped out of number 12 Grimmauld place and onto the muggle sidewalk. The early morning sun had yet to appear over the horizon and only its reddish orange glow could be seen on the horizon.

The sidewalk was nearly deserted as they walked to the Bus Station that would take them to Thalamus's preferred training spot in North London.

Harry had been doing this for as long as he could remember, every Monday thru Saturday Thalomus would take him to Hampstead Heath in North London, where they would usually find a relatively vacated spot and Thalomus would conduct what he called 'training'.

This training consisted of a variety of skills (most of them ones Thalomus had learned while on active duty with the Hunters). Monday, Wednesday and Fridays consisted of a series of physical exercises, after which Thalomus would have him practice spell casting using a fake wand; Harry wasn't old enough to have his own wand yet and at any rate he wasn't allowed to use magic till he turned 17.

But Thalomus still taught him the correct way to pronounce certain spells and practice what he called ' _Rapid Response Drills_ ' in which Harry had to practice facing a certain direction and casting the correct defensive spell on command.

Afterwards they would return home where he was tutored on various charms and defensive magic.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays Harry had to focus on none magical defensive skills that Thalomus called ' _Martial Arts'_. This went similarly to the other days, accept that Thalomus taught him how to fight armed and bare handed against armed and unarmed opponents.

After a few hours of this they would go home and eat breakfast, after which Thalomus focused on more mundane skills such as math, spelling, reading and writing.

The Trip to North London, Hampton Heath Park took a fair bit of time as Thalomus and Harry had walked most of the way. Harry didn't like having to walk to the park in the morning, partly because he had to almost jog to keep up with his Dad's pace which was quite brisk, but partly because it would have been faster for him to apperate or go by broom stick, but Thalomus wouldn't hear of it.

"Don't want you growing up to be one of those candy-arsed wizards who can't even take a crap on the loo without 'magic' to hold their hand." He'd said the last time Harry had complained about the long trip.

Once they had arrived at Hampton Heath Thalomus had lead Harry to one of the more out of the way spots in the park. It wasn't really necessary this early in the morning as there so few people here.

Never the less once he'd decided on the spot they were going to use this morning Thalomus dropped the gym back beside him and told Harry to start stretching out.

While Harry was doing this Thalomus was taking out several square shaped punching mitts, a large black chest protector and a few other things.

He put on the chest protector first, tying it behind his back and making sure it was tight enough it wouldn't slip, then he slid on the punching mitts onto his hands and kneeled down.

Harry recognizing it was time to get started stopped stretching and walked over to Thalomus.

"Alright Harry, I want you to start off with warm up drills, punch each target once and then deliver a kick to my solar plexus. Do that ten times and then I'll tell you what the next drill I want you to do is."

"Right Dad!" said Harry calmly and he raised his fists up so that they were close to his jaw, but his left leg a medium distance behind him and began doing the exercises.

After Harry had gone through all the warm up drills Thalomus had him start practicing more complicated techniques which involved a lot of jabbing, punching kicking and elbowing. Next he practiced both using and defending against an opponent with a knife and then against an opponent with a wand.

On and on it went until Thalomus finally looked at his watch and decided it was time to go home and eat breakfast.

Harry's enthusiasm was curtailed however when Thalomus informed him they would be jogging back and when he complained about it to Thalomus, Thalomus told him that they were now going to run a longer distance.

Hungry and tried from all that work Harry complained that he did want to run back, that it was stupid when they could just as easily use the bus or apperate.

Harry paid for his attitude with a light slap upside the head from Thalomus who gave him a very stern look and said, "The more you complain, the farther we are going to run".

Rubbing his head and groaning at the injustice of it all Harry gave in and resigned himself to a very long trip before he got to eat anything that morning.

End of Chapter 2

 _A/N: Merlin's beard that was longer than I thought. I was actually going to go further but. . .I felt like I was spending too much time on my OC Thalomus and not enough on Harry. However I did want to dedicate at least one chapter to showing glimpses of Harry's life with his new Father and his new home with the intent that it would help set the stage for how his responses and actions will be different in this brief retelling of the HP Books._

 _Please note, I am not going to try and re-tell each book from cover to cover, that would take too long and frankly it would be too much work. Instead all future chapters will focus on key and some not so key moments from the books and how they might have played out with Harry growing up under someone else._

 _I want to take this moment to tell you I am not a fan of the Dursleys, Kreacher, or Ron Weasley. While I am not going to sink to the level of bashing any of them do not expect me to drastically change them either._

 _And finally! From this point on the chapters will be primarily if not entirely focused on Harry._


End file.
